Supply-side economics

A theory of economics that reductions in tax rates will stimulate investment and in turn will benefit the entire society.

Supply-Side Economics

A macroeconomic theory that a government can best promote growth by providing incentives for persons to produce goods and services. The primary way a supply-side oriented government does this is by maintaining low tax rates so that investors and entrepreneurs may use their money toward production. Maintaining low tax rates on the wealthy is one of the most important and controversial aspects of supply-side economics; the theory states that well off persons have the capital available to produce goods and services and thereby create jobs and grow the economy. Critics contend that this does not happen in reality, and that the wealthy are more likely to keep, rather than invest, their money. In the United States, supply-side economics was crucial to the economic policy in the Ronald Reagan administration. See also: Keynesian economics, Monetarism, Trickle-down economics.

supply-side economics

The branch of economics that concentrates on measures to increase output of goods and services in the long run. The basis of supply-side economics is that marginal tax rates should be reduced to provide incentives to supply additional labor and capital, and thereby promote long-term growth.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.

supply-side economics

the branch of economic analysis concerned with the productive capability of an economy (POTENTIAL GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT) and with policies that attempt to expand the stock of factors of production and to improve the flexibility of factor markets so as to generate the largest possible output for a given level of AGGREGATE DEMAND. Supply-side economists have examined institutional rigidities in factor markets and the effect of higher factor prices in ‘pricing people out of jobs’. This has led them to condemn the activities of trade unions in labour markets on the grounds that trade unions impose RESTRICTIVE LABOUR PRACTICES (such as overmanning and demarcation boundaries) and push WAGE RATES up to levels that exceed the MARGINAL REVENUE PRODUCTIVITY of the workers concerned, thereby causing UNEMPLOYMENT and COST-PUSH INFLATION. Such ideas have also led supply-side economists to condemn certain SOCIAL-SECURITY BENEFITS systems and PROGRESSIVE TAXATION systems for creating a POVERTY TRAP that acts as a disincentive for the unemployed to take low-paid jobs.

More broadly, supply-side economics has been concerned with ways in which the AGGREGATE SUPPLY SCHEDULE can be shifted outwards so as to enable more output to be produced in response to growing aggregate demand without raising the PRICE LEVEL.

Governments may adopt supply-side policies to increase the stock of factors of production and to improve the efficiency of resource use by promoting the flexibility of markets in responding to demand changes. These policies include reductions in taxation and other disincentives to work to increase labour participation rates; financial incentives to increase capital investment in plant and equipment and promote similar investments in process and product invention and innovation; education and training policies to improve the supply of required skills; more competition in the financial sector to improve the efficiency of capital markets; privatization and reduced government control of industry (deregulation) to encourage industrial efficiency; regional policy assistance, private rented accommodation and portable pensions to encourage labour mobility; lower tax rates and changed social security benefits to provide incentives to work harder and take risks; curbs on the power of trade unions to improve the flexibility of labour markets, wider share ownership and assistance to the self-employed to promote enterprise culture. These measures can help to increase economic growth rates and reduce unemployment. See also NEGATIVE INCOME TAX, PROFIT-RELATED PAY, LAFFER CURVE.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

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References in periodicals archive

For example, during the period when supply-side economics took hold in conservative circles, most of the institute's top economists were basically Keynesian moderates, such as Herbert Stein.

The myth of the Powell memo

Conservatives could call it supply-side economics, as they did under President Ronald Reagan.

The fiscal cliff deal proves Congress is working

At the onset of the 1980s, the neoliberal economic policy was adopted by Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK and became known respectively as Reagonomics or supply-side economics and Thatcherism.

Neoliberalism: A Scourge to Humankind

The early back of the napkin version of the Laffer curve would go on to become the basis for Reaganomics and supply-side economics. 'American economic policy for 30 years came from that napkin," he said.

Who needs words? Communicating with pictures gets to the point faster

The austerity-growth dilemma has come to a head, pitching so-called supply-side economics, based on sound budgets and a drive for efficiency, against calls for extra stimulus to counter the drag of cutbacks.

Reforms key to EU growth

Talking about his own experience managing and owning Edde Sands, a beach resort in northern Lebanon, Edde said that entrepreneurs should endorse supply-side economics and create innovative businesses even when demand appeared to be in shortage.

Safadi tells panel money not measurement of success

Hayek awarded the Nobel Prize in 1974), monetarism (with Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winner in 1976), rational expectations (with Nobel Prizes to Robert Lucas in 1995 and Thomas Sargent in 2011), public choice (with James Buchanan, Nobel Prize in 1986), and supply-side economics (Robert Mundell, Nobel Prize in 1999).

Objective Economics: How Ayn Rand's Philosophy Changes Everything About Economics

Likewise, the enduring attraction of supply-side economics, despite all of the evidence against it (especially in a period in which there is high unemployment), will prevent raising taxes at the top.

The perils of 2012

I've always been surprised that so many environmentalists, typically found on the political left, are such stalwart believers in the conservative doctrine of supply-side economics.

Don't blame Canada

When in the 1970s "stagflation" saw a puzzling combination of high unemployment and high inflation (puzzling because it contradicted the inverse relationship predicted by the Phillips Curve), "supply-side economics" offered the solution: a lowering of marginal tax rates (to provide incentives for new ventures and thus to address the unemployment problem), while a "tight" monetary policy put the kibosh on the inflation.

The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward

Milton Friedman and the "Chicago Boys" are famous, or infamous in the view of some, for "supply-side economics," the notion that increasing the "supply" of goods and services would lead to increased economic growth.

Demand and supply in democracy promotion: the danger of civics stagnation